Fun, Friends, and Food

We got home from our big camping weekend a few hours ago. We finally have everything unloaded and put away, so I have a moment to sit down! Truthfully, I'll probably be relaxing a lot this afternoon and evening. Camping is a lot of work! And after the huge meals we prepared this weekend, we decided we're taking it easy, ordering pizza for dinner tonight, and chillin' with Gabby :-)

So here are some of the memories we made during our first married camping trip together :-)

Since the guys had a softball game Friday night, we didn't get to the campsite until almost dark. Luke and I somehow managed to put up our tent, with the help of Luke's truck's headlights shining.
Here are the guys, fixing breakfast on Saturday morning.
Here's a picture of some bacon and sausage. We went through 2 lbs of bacon, 1 lb. of sausage, and a whole loaf of Texas toast for the French toast! We had some hungry boys with us!
After breakfast, I had to snap this picture of our friend Jared being goofy while we were all playing cards
In the morning, the guys went fishing while the girls brought some chairs down to the beach and read for awhile by the lake.
Sidenote: You'll notice that we're all wearing sweatshirts in most of these pictures. It was in the 60s most of the weekend! I don't ever remember it being that cold in July before. I enjoyed it, though. It was much better than sweating to death all weekend!
Did I mention that the guys fished in a canoe?? It was pretty funny seeing our 3 big, manly husbands jumping in a canoe together. We were sure it was going to tip or sink! It didn't, but they didn't catch any fish, either. Here is a progression of pictures of them setting off on their fishing adventure. For some reason, us girls just thought this was hysterical, and couldn't stop laughing.
We saw a bunch of geese swim by, too!After we had had enough, we went back to the campsite and had a cornhole tournament (Luke and I won!!)
We all lounged around and relaxed for awhile after that. Jared was teaching Rachel how to play a song on his guitar. They looked so sweet, I had to take a picture :-)We all ended up falling asleep for about an hour or two in the afternoon. I don't know what it is about camping that makes us so tired! But the girls all went in our own tents and took naps, and the guys slept on blankets outside. Except for Luke who slept on a chair. I'm sure it looked really funny to anyone who walked by!
When we all finally woke up, we started preparing dinner, which was the meal that Luke and I were in charge of. We had chicken, sweet corn, and curly fries (I had referred to them as campin' potatoes in my last post, but apparently, I was confused! These are curly fries. Luke will have to explain to me what campin' potatoes are sometime. Not sure how I got mixed up, but that's okay!)

Here are Sarah and Rachel, making the curly fries with the apple peeler/corer/slicer
The guys cooked them in the fryer (Luke and Jared once started a grease fire a few years ago making donuts in there at a youth group camping retreat...needless to say, we were all a little nervous. But no major catastrophes ensued this time!)Here is everyone (minus me!) eating their sweet corn. I can't look at Luke in this picture without bursting out in laughterYum! this was a pretty good meal if I do say so myself ;-)
Later last night, a few of our friends came to visit. The guys had another cornhole tournament while the girls took a walkWe went back down to the lake to watch the beautiful sunsetWe spent the rest of the evening by the campfire, talking and laughing. This morning we went home to take showers and go to church, and then we came back to the campground to clean up and eat baked potatoes and pork chops for lunch. Delicious!
So this weekend was filled with lots of fun, friends, and food! We're talking about going back again for a weekend this fall. I'm excited, but glad for a few months off before we go again. Like I said, camping is a lot of work, and very tiring!

If you've never been tent camping, you should try it! This is coming from a very girly girl who never imagined myself doing anything like this. It's fun to "rough it" for a weekend, though ;-)